China's coast guard could step up armaments and provocations around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea following the enforcement of a controversial Chinese law, a Japanese Defense Ministry think tank has warned.
The National Institute for Defense Studies said in an annual report released Friday that military competition between the United States and China in the Western Pacific is likely to further increase under a "new Cold War" between the two powers.
The institute published the report after Beijing on Feb. 1 enforced a law that allows the China Coast Guard to use weapons against foreign ships the country sees as illegally entering its waters, in what critics say is an attempt to seize the Senkakus, which China claims and calls Diaoyu.